It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Sweep
by MadDragon13
Summary: What do you do when you and 12 other players are trapped in a pocket universe as reality falls apart around you? Celebrate the winter holidays, of course. Unabashed, soon-to-be-jossed Christmas fic; will eventually contain Arasolfef, Calliope/Jade, Johndavekat, pale Equinep, pale Karezi and Rosemary.
1. We Need a Little 12th Perigee's

**A/N: I'm not even gonna apologize for this one. I just want all my ships to be happy and together and also it's writing holidays soooooooo yeah.**

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><p>Sollux didn't know how it happened. And neither did anyone else, he thought. Or rather, he knew <em>what <em>had had happened, but definitely not _how. _Much like Aradia had telepathically chucked them all in the transportalizer just before their scratch, the three Space girls working together had split the trolls and kids – some dead, some alive – up randomly into several "spacebubbles," which seemed to resemble pocket universes more than anything else, just before some vital parts of the universe finally splintered under Lord English's influence. The spacebubble he shared with 12 other players was about the size of a small moon, with a living complex eerily identical to the one on the meteor in the Veil sweeps ago. And, most importantly, it was _peaceful. _

He didn't know how long they'd be there – although Kanaya predicted they'd be there for 12th Perigee's – and he didn't know what would happen when they got out, but he wasn't complaining. And to his knowledge, neither was anyone else.

Another significant thing that had happened after his mysterious retrieval from the Furthest Ring was his, Aradia's and Feferi's entry into a polyamorous matespriteship. He harbored red feelings for both of them, which they both reciprocated, and their own relationship tended to resemble a moirallegiance that occasionally drifted further red, so it worked out well.

Their little group of…well, if not exactly _friends, _at least allies, had been in the spacebubble for about a week. The complex didn't have enough rooms for everyone to have their own, so they more or less shared with whoever they wanted. This of course meant that those in romantic relationships and with close friends slept in the same room, if only because no one could tell them not to. Sollux didn't know if this included any shenanigans and vehemently did not want to know.

One morning – or it still could have been night, there wasn't any way for him to tell the time what with being blind and all – Sollux woke with a shivering jolt. There was a cool, solid mass behind him, which meant Feferi, but no soft warm mass in front of him, which meant Aradia was gone. The spacebubble got _cold _at night, which usually was someone else's problem because he and Fef had a living heating pad for a girlfriend they could cuddle up to at night, but now said living heating pad was nowhere to be found.

He shivered and pulled the blanket up over him and Feferi, who was snuggled against his back with her arms around his chest. Aradia was probably in the bathroom or something, she'd be back soon. He curled up into a ball to preserve the maximum amount of heat and tried to go back to sleep.

Eventually, he guessed, his shivering must have woken Feferi up. She shifted, yawned, and buried her perpetually cold nose in Sollux's hair. "Where's Aradia…?"

"No idea, woke up and she was gone."

Feferi made a concerned _hmmm _that Sollux could feel vibrating against his skull. "She's knot usually an early riser. D'you think somefin's wrong?"

Sollux shrugged. "Dunno. Hope not. She's been doing really good since we met her in the Furthest Ring."

"I know, but I worry aboat h – wait. Do you…hear that?"

"No, what? Do I hear what?"

"You have to stop talking and listen, silly."

So Sollux shut up and listened. He couldn't hear anything, except the sound of his and Feferi's soft breathing, and the humming of the complex's pathetic excuse for a heating system, and…singing?

Yeah. Singing. Specifically, a very faint, off-tune but spirited rendition of "We Need a Little 12th Perigee's."

"Is she _kidding? _What time is it, like 5 AM?" Sollux tried and failed to keep the hope out of his gruff words. Aradia had _lived _for holidays before she died, always getting into the spirit _way _earlier than everyone else, but had lost all interest in them after the incident. The day Sollux had informed her that it was Halloween only to have her respond with a dull "Is it?" had broken his heart the first time it happened.

But she was alive again, now, wasn't she? He'd known, of course, but it hadn't occurred to him that maybe, just maybe, this meant that the old, festive Aradia was back. And it could have been the sheer relief of knowing that she was okay, or his barely concealable joy and excitement that she _was _back, or that he was still too tired to fully process anything, but that faint singing might have been the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.

"Come on!" Feferi squealed, bouncing out of bed and tugging on Sollux's arm. "We should really go kelp her!"

By the sound of her voice Feferi was grinning like an idiot, and he knew that he was too. He finally gave up on keeping that coolly disinterested façade and jumped out of bed after her, catching her hand to avoid walking into the walls. Feferi opened the door and pulled him into the hallway, where his nose was met with a barrage of smells he identified as Aradia and grist and a _lot _of red and green. (His smell-seeing lessons with Terezi were progressing well, but he still had a long way to go before he'd be used to this blindness thing. Hopefully it wouldn't lead to eating chalk like she did. Ew.)

"…right this very _mo-_ment, candles in the _win-_dow, carols at the – hey!" Aradia set down what sounded like a lot more boxes than she could carry – telekinesis, probably – to envelop Sollux and Feferi in a tight, warm hug. She was wearing a new, long-sleeved, red and green sweater dress she had probably alchemized recently, and Sollux vaguely remembered her in a similar fashion disaster in 12th Perigee's parties past. She kissed both of them on the noses and clapped her hands together. "I couldn't find any decorations in storage, so I alchemized some last night! Want to help me decorate? I've got holly, and wreathes, and tinsel and lights and candy canes and these little motion-activated music box things and…"

"That's _fintastic, _Aradia!" Feferi let go of Sollux's hand and twirled over to one of the boxes, pulling it open and throwing a length of something silver at his head. It turned out to be tinsel, he discovered after retrieving it from the floor.

By this point a few others had emerged from their rooms to see what the noise was about. There was Karkat, letting out his inevitable mumbled stream of swearwords at it being _five in the morning, can't any of you behave _sanely_ for once_, there was Terezi, smelling the air and grinning excitedly, there was Nepeta, being very distracted by a branch of holly Aradia was dangling carelessly over her shoulder. They ducked back into their rooms to alert their roommates, or the roommates woke up by themselves, until everyone – he thought it was everyone, it smelled like everyone – was gathered in the cramped corridor. Aradia climbed onto one of the taller boxes and cleared her throat loudly.

"Who wants to help me decorate for 12th Perigee's?!"

Maybe it was the fact that Aradia and her holidays were _back, _maybe everyone was tired of being far too mature for their 7.4 sweeps and wanted to act like wrigglers again, but Sollux was promptly overwhelmed by a surge of teens all trying to get at a few cardboard boxes. He backed away quickly and into a wall, and stayed there until Feferi came to help him through the crowd. Aradia was trying halfheartedly to spearhead the operation, fluttering over people's heads and helping to find favorite decorations. Sollux was given the responsibility of putting wreathes on doors. It wasn't very demanding work, so he listened to snippets of the others' conversations as he hung brightly colored wreathes on doorknobs.

"Aradia, what should we do about the behemoth leaving?" Nepeta asked, looking up from her strands of tinsel with a worried expression.

"Great question, Nep, I really have no idea! Hey, guys!" This last sentence was shouted out to the general population of the spacebubble. "What should we do about the leaving?"

"The what," John muttered.

Karkat explained, in hushed and irritated tones. John made a small noise of confusion. Karkat sighed.

"There are obviously no behemoths on this meteor," Kanaya observed. "In fact I do not believe there are any other living things besides us."

"Hey…" Rose looked up from digging in one of the boxes. "Humans have a tradition of bringing a pine tree in for Christmas and decorating that. We could get one of those, I know there's a forest outside."

Sollux scoffed. A _pine tree? _That was the most brainless thing he'd ever heard. Wasn't it usually Egbert who came up with these pranks?

"It's true, we do!" Jade verified. "And there's plenty out there, we could borrow Kanaya's chainsaw and cut one down easily!"

"Ooh! Can we do that, Equius? Aradia? Can me and Equius go get a tree?!" Nepeta bounced lightly on her toes.

"Nepeta – " Equius coughed. "I hardly think that it is proper – "

"Come on, Equius! It's 12th Perigee's!" Aradia grinned. "Lighten up for once!"

Sollux snorted. So they would be going through with this ridiculous "tree" plan. Nobody could resist Aradia at her most fervent, not in the first of her holiday moods for over a sweep, and _definitely _not Equius.

"Fine," he said eventually, in that low voice that meant he was frustrated and needed a towel. And, sure enough – "I need a towel," he added, and rushed back to his and Nepeta's room.

After that it was a blur of laughter and happy smells and Aradia and Kanaya teaming up to make sure he didn't screw up the festive aesthetic of the decorations too much. (At one point he purposely replaced his white candles with orange ones, just to mess with them, and Kanaya's reaction made him wish for his sight back.)

"John, what the _fmmgmph – " _Karkat's expletive was drowned out with uproarious laughter and Aradia yelling in shock as John and Dave accidentally-on-purpose overturned a box on his head. Aradia scurried over to tell them to clean up, and Kanaya sighed long-sufferingly.

Terezi was singing loudly and monopolizing all the red decorations, someone had produced Christmas music out of nowhere, and Jade and Callie were giggling helplessly at something they had pulled out of the stack of boxes. Callie…Sollux narrowed his useless eyes. Something wasn't right about the new troll girl, something off about her scent. According to Feferi and Aradia, she looked like a normal troll girl, if dead. But her smell didn't smell anything like the others.

Sollux shrugged and went back to decorating. Jade trusted her, and he trusted Jade, he supposed. But if she turned out to be some kind of Lord English alien or something in disguise…he'd be ready.

Time passed in the weird timeless way that it does when you can't see a clock or anything else, and soon they had run out of Aradia's decorations and ideas for other ones to alchemize. Callie, who wasn't used to being around people, had gone back to sleep, and a few of the group had decided to see what they could find for breakfast. Sollux noticed he could tell how big Aradia's grin was without her saying anything – probably the biggest it had ever been.

"I can't believe you guys actually helped me with 12th Perigee stuff this sweep! That never happens!" Aradia could hardly contain herself and bounced on the balls of her feet as she and Feferi walked with Sollux to the kitchen.

"I guess we all subconsciously missed your obnoxious enthusiasm for things," Sollux teased. "But do you actually think we'll be here for 12th Perigee's Eve itself? I kind of hope so. Better than spending it back out in the Furthest Ring, you know?"

"Jade says we probably will, which is why I decided we needed to decorate!" chirped Aradia.

"That's fintastic! I'm so happy!" exclaimed Feferi. Aradia laughed and took Sollux and Feferi's hands. "I know, right? Come on!"

"Come on what? What are you – aah!" Sollux's arm jerked in Aradia's grip, and he jogged to keep up with the girls, who were suddenly – skipping? Were they seriously skipping?

"We're skipping, Sol," said Feferi helpfully.

"I cannot believe this," Sollux muttered.

"There's literally nobody else in the hallway," Aradia said.

"Oh."

Sollux may or may not have skipped a few steps. Just a few. Just to keep his arm in its socket. If they even happened. Which they probably didn't. And if they did happen, who could blame him? Aradia was _back._


	2. Skater's Waltz

Jade poked her head into the library. "Has anyone seen Callie lately?"

Kanaya looked up from her book, blank orange except for a yellow sun symbol on the cover. "No, I haven't seen her anywhere. But then again, I haven't been looking…maybe one of the others knows?"

"I already checked with them. I thought she might have come in here because it was quiet." Jade leaned against the doorframe and sighed.

"Oh. In that case, I very much doubt I can help you. Sorry."

"S'fine. She's probably hiding from John and Terezi – he convinced her to go pranking with him, did you hear that?"

Kanaya looked alarmed. "No, I did not. This could end badly."

"Yeah, tell me about it!" Jade laughed. "If they come in here, don't trust a thing they tell you."

"Don't worry. I won't."

Jade closed the library door. She hadn't seen any trace of Calliope for several hours. Being around so many people all talking and interacting at once made Callie feel overwhelmed after living by herself for most of her life, a feeling Jade could certainly relate to. She remembered wandering off to remote corners of LOFAF or the Prospitian battleship when it became too much, and after their arrival in the spacebubble Calliope had taken up doing much the same. Sometimes it had helped Jade to have someone – just one person – to talk to when she did this, and Callie never seemed to mind the company.

She wandered through the maze of gray, indistinguishable corridors, calling Callie's name every once in a while, wondering how the trolls had survived in such dull surroundings for however long their group had. They – her, Kanaya, Callie, and Terezi, who had found out on her own – hadn't told the rest of the players about Callie's true species, letting them believe she was a dead troll from an alternate session. Terezi's reaction after discovering that she was of the same species as Lord English had convinced them that that would be less than a good idea. This meant that Callie stayed in her trollsona at all times, which she was quite happy to do. She said she disliked her true appearance, despite Jade's assurance of its cuteness.

Not that the trollsona wasn't cute, of course – curly white hair and corkscrewy horns looked adorable on her. Most everything looked cute on Calliope, in both of her forms…oh dear.

Jade ducked her head to hide her blush – even though she knew no one could see her – and suppressed the urge to let out a little doggy whine. Yes, she found Calliope cute. As in, _really _cute. As in, _romantically _cute.

Flushed crush. She had a flushed crush on Callie. A big one.

She could count on one hand the number of times she'd felt this blushy and butterflyish for anyone, and still have enough fingers left to do the spacey thing. It was back in the spiral that she and Callie had met and become friends, but it hadn't been until much later that these feelings had started to develop.

Stupid feelings. Weren't cherubs only able to form caliginous relationships? Stupid annoying useless feelings. She pushed them off to a corner of her mind and concentrated on not blushing. She didn't want to find Calliope with her face beet red.

After searching for a while Jade realized that she was going in circles. Or, she thought she was – yeah, that was the library, and she'd definitely passed that before. Calliope wasn't anywhere in the complex, so she probably was outside somewhere in the forest. Jade didn't know why she hadn't checked there before – Calliope loved the outside, and spent as much time as she could there without freezing.

Eventually, Jade managed to find the door and slip outside into the dry, cold air. She shivered, watching her breath fluff out of her mouth and dissipate into the blank gray sky. That must have been why she hadn't thought of looking here – her subconscious didn't want her out in the cold. Jade ducked back inside to grab a coat for herself and Callie, who always forgot.

She found the cherub around the back of the complex, curled up against the wall with her sketchbook and pencil. She looked cold, but too engrossed in her doodling to notice.

"Hey, Callie!" Jade called. "Brought you a coat."

"Oh!" Callie jumped and clutched her sketchbook against her chest. "I'm sorry, Jade. I didn't hear you coming up."

"Whatcha drawin'?" Jade leaned over, playfully trying to catch a glimpse of the page. Calliope stood up quickly, almost impaling Jade's face with her horns. "Nothing. Er – I'd rather not share it, this time."

"Okay. Here, put this on! You look cold."

Callie accepted the coat gratefully, flipping her sketchbook closed before setting it down to shrug her arms into the sleeves. "It is rather chilly out here, isn't it?"

Jade gave a giggle that was half shiver. "It's gotta be below freezing, at least!"

Callie nodded and picked up her book. "I really like it out here. It's so quiet…and cold. And there are so many plants!"

Plants had become something of a shared-interest-slash-inside-joke after the spiral. Jade was struck by a sudden idea and equally sudden accompanying surge of butterflies. "Hey – want to go exploring a little bit? In the plants?" _In the plants. Nice going, Harley._

"Oh, yes! That sounds great!" Calliope's face lit up, and she grinned in that peculiar too-wide-for-a-troll way. "One can never have too many plants!"

"Agreed wholeheartedly!" Jade's spacedog tail twitched excitedly under her coat. "There's a path here somewhere, I think…"

The path, once they found it, was wide enough for them to walk comfortably side by side. It seemed wonderfully well maintained for a path that hadn't existed two weeks ago, which could have been because of the unwillingness of the plants to grow at all. Jade didn't know whether they were dead, or dormant, or not completely real, or what.

"Would you believe, I've never actually been this far in the forest before?" Calliope asked. She was nearly skipping along the path, happily inspecting every different plant she came across. "Were all these on your planet, Jade? LOFAF?"

"I'm not really sure. I didn't go down to LOFAF for plant-related purposes much before I met you – normally, I would have, but I guess I was kind of depressed on the ship."

Callie's face fell abruptly. "Oh yeah, you told me about that. How – how have you been doing, lately?"

"Since we got here, I've been having mostly good days. This has been one so far – hey, watch out!"

Callie, who had been walking backwards to talk to Jade, whirled around just in time to avoid colliding with a tree. She jumped backwards in surprise and Jade nearly walked into her. "Careful, Callie!"

"I am careful, there was just a tree." Callie walked back to said tree and ran a hand over its bark. "This is an evergreen. Right?"

"Yep. A Christmas tree! I never had any Christmas trees on my island – too warm for them to grow."

"And where I lived, it was too warm for anything to grow." Callie picked a cluster of needles off the tree and put them in her pocket. "I might be making a scrapbook," she explained. "A plant scrapbook."

"Neat," said Jade. "Hey look, over there – I think that's a pond!"

"Race you!" said Callie, and took off.

With doggy speed and spacey powers, it shouldn't have been hard for Jade to overtake Calliope. The cherub had space powers too, though, and was surprisingly fast. She skidded to a halt just in time to stop from running out on the pond and Jade, who hadn't seen the sudden halt coming, tackled her unceremoniously from behind. Callie let out a sharp peal of shocked laughter and she stumbled under Jade's weight. Jade grinned and hung on to her, growling good-naturedly and helping Callie recover her balance.

"Skating?" asked Callie, untangling herself from Jade to fix her wig. "Did you bring skates?"

"No, but I think we can make them, like back in the spiral. It's our spacebubble." Jade held out her hands and concentrated, and a pair of bright green ice skates slowly materialized before her. She sat down on a log and pulled off her shoes. "Now you try!"

Callie nodded, and soon she was holding skates similar to Jade's. Green, of course, because green was the best color. They had gone skating a few times in the spiral, out of boredom and because Jade had always wanted to, and found that they both enjoyed it.

Jade had the better balance, and was out in the middle of the pond before Callie had made it past the shoreline, but the cherub quickly got on her feet and skated over. "I really hope this ice is thick enough to hold us," she said conversationally.

"We're both god tiers, we can fly if we need to," Jade replied.

"True." Callie slipped suddenly and grabbed Jade's hands for support. "Want to see if we can do a figure eight?"

Once Jade had recovered from the shock of Callie's dry, gray-painted hands snatching hers, she nodded an assent, and Callie pulled her along a little faster than necessary.

The figure eight turned into more of a squiggly figure six before they gave up on it and decided to just skate around the border of the pond. Callie was a little unstable, but Jade seemed to have a natural talent for staying upright.

They skated for over an hour, according to Jade's many computers (she had three on her right now, which was two less than optimal but still a fine number), sometimes together and sometimes making their own aimless paths across the ice. Jade was experimenting with skating with her hands behind her back and one foot in the air, like in the movies, while absentmindedly contemplating her flushed feelings for Callie. She had been trying to work up the courage to tell her about them for a while, and now that they were alone together of course it was as good a time as it would ever be…she knew the cherub well enough to know that Callie wouldn't let it get in the way of their friendship, and it would feel good to have the weight off of her chest...Calliope had probably picked up on her odd behavior around her long ago, despite how Jade tried to hide it. She was smart like that.

Not to say that it didn't send a flurry of butterflies through Jade's stomach any time she considered it. Flushed feelings were _weird. _

Jade had just managed to get up on one leg while still going at a stable pace when she heard a squeak, a thump and an "ow!" from behind her. She let her foot drop down and did a quick u-turn. Calliope had fallen backwards and was sitting disgruntledly on the ice, making sure her horns were still in the right place.

Jade skated over and slid to a stop in front of her. "You okay?"

"Fine, just took a tumble! Help me up?" Callie held out a hand, and Jade pulled her to her feet.

Or that was how it was supposed to go. What really happened was Jade pulled too hard, or Calliope slipped again, and they ended up holding onto each other with their faces very close. Jade swallowed.

"My bad!" Callie slid backwards a few inches, determinedly looking everywhere that wasn't Jade's (likely blushing) face. "Sorry, Jade. My fault. My bad."

"No, it was me, sorry about that, uh – " _Now, Jade! Come on, you can do it! _"Hey, Ca – "

"Hey Jade?" Callie's interruption was shy and hesitant.

"Yeah?"

"Oh, no, you were about to say something. Go ahead."

"No, that's okay! You go. It's fine."

"Erm. Okay." Callie cleared her throat. "Lately, or, since the spiral, really, I have been experiencing some odd…feelings. I don't know what they are. Or why I am feeling them. Or if they're because I've been around other species a lot and cherubs aren't meant to do that, or because Caliborn and I are separate without me predominating, but, I think the things I've been feeling are…red? Maybe?" She hunched her shoulders as she said this, as if she was trying to shrink into herself.

To say Jade's heart skipped a beat would be an understatement. "Red feelings?"

Calliope seemed to wilt even more. "Like I said, I don't know if that's what they are for sure. But, it feels like…the warmth of friendship, except I think about the person more, and I get nervous and rambly when I'm around them...and I want to kiss them." If Callie was a human she would have been bright, vibrant beet red.

"That sounds like red feelings, all right. Maybe Rose and Kanaya will know? We can ask them when we get back."

"Okay. But – Rose doesn't know, does she? That I'm not a troll."

"Good point." Jade pondered this for a moment. "Maybe we'll just ask Kanaya…then tell Rose if you think that's necessary? I don't think she'd freak out. She's pretty cool that way."

Calliope shrugged and wobbled a bit, trying to keep her balance. "I suppose."

Jade coughed. She knew she really shouldn't ask, it would be awkward for both of them and most likely lead to some heartbreak, but she couldn't help herself. "Also, just out of curiosity, you understand, if you don't mind me asking…who, um…"

"N-no one!" Callie almost shouted, panicked. There was silence for a moment, then she started laughing. "That was ridiculous."

Jade joined her, noticing how Callie's laugh was higher than she was used to hearing it.

Eventually they had to stop so they didn't fall. Callie sighed, grinning at her skates. "Of course it's not no one, I don't believe that's how red feelings work…but, er, I would much rather not tell you this time."

Jade didn't miss how the cherub's hand tensed in her grip, though, or how quickly she pulled away. This was certainly an unanticipated turn of events.

"So – Jade, I interrupted you earlier. What were you going to say?"

Now or never. The butterflies in her stomach were getting more frantic – it was now or never, there wouldn't be a better time, and now Jade was at least 70% sure it was reciprocated…She opened her mouth, ready to give some sort of articulate speech about her feelings, but what actually came out was:

"Can I kiss you?"

Callie's mouth dropped open. Jade backtracked quickly. "I mean, I'm sorry, that was dumb. It's just I've had this flushed crush on you for ages and then you said – "

She barely registered Callie's hands coming up to frame her face before she was pulled into a kiss.

It was a good kiss. It was a _really _good kiss. Not that Jade had any experiences with kisses, or Calliope for that matter. But it was a very good kiss. Jade could see why people liked kissing. Callie's hands and mouth were freezing points of contact that radiated ice through Jade's skin wherever they touched, the tip of her nose brushing against Jade's cheek like a small hesitant icicle. Jade shifted and brought a hand up to the back of Calliope's neck, angling her head gently so their mouths slotted together better. Calliope hummed happily, the sound vibrating against Jade's lips. She tasted of mint and sweets and something bitter Jade tentatively identified as gray paint.

Without warning, Callie deepened the kiss into what she would call a snog, and Jade shifted again – only for her foot to slip out from under her and send her falling straight backwards. She grabbed Callie instinctively for support, but Callie's balance was nowhere near good enough to save them, and they ended up crashing to the ice with Callie landing right on top of Jade.

They were silent for a moment, then burst simultaneously into uncontrollable giggles.

"Well, that was certainly – that was a turn of events!" gasped Callie.

Grinning wordlessly, Jade reached up and brushed a curl out of Callie's face. The cherub froze at the touch but relaxed quickly. Jade opened her mouth to say something and closed it again, her dog ear twitching suddenly. She cocked her head, distracted. "Did you hear something?"

Calliope looked confused. "No…"

"Really? I could have sworn I heard the ice – " Jade was cut off by an ominous, hollow groaning emanating from underneath the two of them.

"That's not good," Callie observed.

"Run!" shouted Jade, and pushed the cherub off of her. They scrambled back to the edge of the pond, followed by many worrying cracking noises.

"Think that's enough skating for one day, don't you?" asked Jade, once they were both back to safety. "I'm cold. Want to head back?"

"Yes, absolutely," replied Callie, sitting down on the log and pulling off her skates. She coughed nervously. "Maybe…maybe when we get back we could, er, we could kiss more? I think we should kiss more."

Jade plopped down on the log beside her, scooting over until their sides were pressed close together. "That sounds like a wonderful idea."


	3. Let It Snow

It was still dark in the room, but white early-morning sunlight shone through the gaps in the window curtains. John slipped out of bed, shivering as his feet hit the cold floor. He was an early riser most mornings, but it felt more freezing than usual today. And it didn't help that he was wearing just thin flannel pants and a T-shirt. Sleeping next to living furnace Karkat Vantas every night made you really used to being warm all the time. At least he had the fuzzy blue socks Dave had alchemized for him. Cold feet were a problem, Dave was warm, seemed like an obvious course of action to put one on the other. For some reason Dave hadn't gone for it. The socks were nice, though.

He padded across the room to the window. He didn't care what Jade had to say about atmospheric impossibility and the lack of a significant water cycle, he'd grown up in Washington and knew when snow was on its way. And snow had been on its way for about two weeks now.

Behind him, Karkat grumbled and rolled over in his sleep. John smiled. He was so much less shouty when he wasn't awake. It made for a nice change.

Awh, now Dave and him were snuggling, Karkat turning to Dave for more warmth to combat the sudden cold absence of John's body. How sweet. _Wouldn't it be a shame if something were to – _

John yanked the curtains open, flooding the room with sunlight.

_-HAPPEN!_

He grinned back at the bed, bracing for the barrage of groaning and expletives and Karkat throwing Dave's shades because they were close. But there was no response.

John frowned. They were both still asleep. Wow. He glanced back out the window and gasped.

Jade wasn't always right. Even about her own creations. He'd known that, of course, nobody was perfect…There had to be at least a foot of it. Untouched. Practically blinding. Some deep and primal instinct buried deep within his subconscious stood up and screamed _snow day!_

He raced to the bed, leaving the curtains to fall back into place over the window. "Guys! Guys, wake up! Look!"

Karkat rolled over, blinked at him once with sleepy yellow eyes, and pulled the covers up over his face.

Dave, somehow, hadn't even had the decency to wake up. John huffed. Desperate times called for desperate measures. He pulled his pillow off of the bed and whacked Karkat and Dave soundly in the heads. "Guys, there's _snow!"_

Karkat yelled loudly and sat up, holding his head with both hands and glaring daggers. "_Nothing _can be worth this, Egbert!"

Dave blinked mutely and groped for his shades. Once he had found them and woken up enough to process John's words, an expression of awe spread over his face. "You're serious?"

John grinned. "Would I joke about snow, Dave?"

"_Dude." _

"I _know."_

Karkat groaned and fell back on the bed, yanking the pillow out of John's hands and burying his face in it. "So some frozen water fell from the sky. So what? Why should I care? Maybe now you can stop harping on about it every hour of the day, and now apparently night."

"You've never actually _seen_ snow, have you?" asked Dave.

"No. And I don't intend to. You two can go frolic or do whatever one does with useless frozen water. I will remain here, hopefully retaining some vestige of the warmth you provided before abandoning me so callously."

John bounced on the bed beside him. "Karkat, come on dude. At least just look out the window," he whined.

"Ugh. Fine. If it'll shut you up about it." Karkat flung the pillow off in John's general direction and sat up, rubbing his eyes. Dave reached out to smooth down his ridiculous troll bedhead and was met with a disgruntled hiss. "Try it again and I'll bite you, Strider."

"Chill, dude. Love you too."

Karkat flushed and scooted out of bed, trotted to the window and flung open the curtains. "There! Can I go back to sleep nnnn…._oh." _He squinted, blinked once and rocked back gently on his heels. His eyes grew wide and his mouth drifted open in barely disguised awe.

"Jegus," he breathed, almost too quietly for John to hear.

He leaned forward, slowly, slowly, splaying his fingers on the frosted glass. His breath fogged up a patch in front of his face, and he wiped it away hurriedly. "What _is _it?" he murmured, nose pressed to the windowpane like a child's.

John grinned unabashedly. No matter how well Karkat thought he kept up that prickly-insensitive-asshole façade, underneath, John knew, he was nothing more than a marshmallow in troll form. He tried to keep his reply nonchalant but couldn't stop some smugness from slipping through. "Just frozen water. Nothing to get excited about, really."

Karkat scowled – but not at him, John noticed. He was too entranced by the snow to look over. "Shut it, Egbert. I know what it is. It just…it doesn't look like any frozen water I've ever seen."

Dave smirked. "That's why we don't call it _ice, _smartass. And I will race you both outside and win. Loser alchemizes us a sled."

* * *

><p>By the time John had lugged the heavy sled made of some plasticky who-knows-what all the way from the alchemizer out the front door, most everyone else had discovered for themselves the excitement outside their windows. Rose was teaching Kanaya how to build snow cats, Terezi was complaining loudly and shrilly about how <em>white <em>and _wet _everything smelled, and Nepeta, Aradia and Feferi would probably start a massive snowball fight soon if no one stopped them.

Karkat stood alone a few yards from the door, hands in his pockets and gazing at nothing with a faint smile on his face. It looked like, in his rush to get outside, he'd forgotten a coat. John was surprised he'd lasted this long – he was weirdly cold-intolerant, despite being super warm to cuddle with.

"You cold?" John asked, coming up beside him.

The troll blinked out of his trance and shrugged. "Nah."

"Yeah you are, doofus. Go get a coat."

"No, John, it's f-fi-fine – " His body was racked by a bout of violent shivers and he scowled in defeat. "Don't s-say a _w-w-wo-word. _I'll be right back."

John shrugged and shuffled over to Dave, who was turning a snowball over in his hands and looking pensively at Terezi. "Dude, I got us a sled. Wanna try it out?"

Dave turned around and grinned, and John was reminded that it was his first time seeing snow too. "After all you told me about it? Hell _yes. _Is that hill big enough?" He pointed with the snowball in his hand.

"Wow, that…looks perfect, actually! That is a _really _good hill! Thanks, Jade!"

Jade flashed him a thumbs up before a sloppy snowball from Callie hit her in the head. She shrieked and scooped up a handful of snow, letting it grow to bowling ball size before heaving it back at the girl.

John raised his eyebrows and giggled. "This is gonna go downhill quickly."

"I could make _such _a pun right now," muttered Dave.

"Hey!" a voice shouted from behind them. Karkat was stumbling through the snow, moving as fast as he could while pulling on a jacket. "I have no idea what you're doing," he puffed when he caught up, "but I want in."

* * *

><p>Karkat perched in the front of the sled, holding tight to its plasticky edges and staring frozenly down the expanse of the steep hill below them. John's arms were clasped tightly around his middle, and he could feel the troll's heart beating fast and hard through the layers of clothing. "I am not sure if I want in anymore."<p>

"Calm down, Nubs," said Dave, settling himself in the back behind John. The sled shifted with his weight, and Karkat tensed even further. John rested his nose in Karkat's hair, trying to be as comforting as he could in this position. "Hey, it's fine. I promise."

Dave's arms slid under John's and met in front of his chest. "So we just – shove off, and then we slide down the hill?"

"Yep. It's fun. Any time you want, Dave."

"What?" Karkat squawked, as Dave began to scoot them forward with his feet. "But I'm not readyyyYYYAAAAAAAHHHH!"

Karkat's screech transitioned into a stream of half-articulated curse words that continued as they flew down the hill. Trees whipped past them on either side, wind and snow blew bitingly into John's face, and he let out a joyful yell. Behind him Dave had put his hands in the air like on a rollercoaster and was whooping with glee. Karkat didn't stop swearing until they slid to a stop a few yards away from the majority of the players.

Sollux, Aradia and Jade were gone, probably exploring. Rose and Nepeta were making snow cats, with Kanaya nowhere to be seen, and the sled narrowly avoided plowing through one of the most removed.

"Dude, that was _amazing!" _yelled Dave, spilling out of the sled to lie giggling helplessly in the snow. "That was so _cool! _I can't believe I got cheated out of that by living in Texas!"

"That was one of the _most _terrifying things I've done in my life," rasped Karkat, rolling limply off the sled. "I do not know _how _you convinced me into it or _what _I was thinking following you guys up there in the first place. I am now likely emotionally traumatized thanks to you and that alchemized hell-machine."

Dave grabbed the sled and pulled it out from underneath John, sending him tumbling into the snow. "So you're gonna stay here while we go up again?"

"Where the hell did you get that idea, Strider?" Karkat popped to his feet and brushed the snow off his jacket. "Most fun I've had since we came to this godforsaken rock. One of you needs to sit in the front, though."

John shrugged. "Suit yourself. Called the fr – aw, Dave!" He launched into the sky after Dave, who had stolen the sled and was fleeing up the hill with it. "Finders keepers, John! Front seat is _mine!"_

"That's not how it works, Dave, come back here right now – _Daaaaaaaave!"_

After a few more runs, other players and their sleds began to appear on the hill. It got kind of crowded, but nobody got hit who wasn't being actively targeted. Which was to be expected from teenagers, anyway. A semi-organized snowball fight began at the bottom of the hill, Rose and Kanaya soon emerging as leaders of the respective sides. John, watching them after a solo sled run, shook his head. Their childish seriousness about the matter was entertaining, but it wasn't like he'd ever –

Seriously who was he kidding. No one. He was kidding no one. Grinning wickedly, John gathered an armful of snow and snuck up behind a fort to dump it on Rose's head.

Rose squeaked and smashed the snowball she was holding into John's face. John staggered back, giggling uncontrollably. "No one expects an attack from behind!"

"No one expects _this!" _yelled Aradia from inside the fort, and hurled a snowball the size of a perfectly generic object at his head.

John ducked and fell over, gasping with laughter, onto his rear. His hand made contact with someone's boot standing behind him, and he tipped his head back to meet the eyes of Dave and Karkat. "I'm under attack, guys."

There was a moment's pause as Karkat and Dave exchanged glances. John's grin wilted slightly. "Does that look mean what I think it means?"

"Probably," said Karkat, and Rose handed him a snowball.

"Oh, you – " John scrambled to his feet, shielding his face from the sudden hail of snowballs. "Traitors! Both of you – you're both rotten traitors, you hear me?!" He ran for the other fort, yelling "Traitors!" until he figured he'd gotten his point across. Karkat's rough, cackling laughter and Dave's undignified snorting followed him as he ducked behind Kanaya's walls. "Please shield me."

"Start firing!" ordered Nepeta, and shoved a snowball into his hand. John was too caught off guard to disobey.

The fight went on for a few enthusiastic hours, or that's what it felt like, anyway. John had really no way of telling time out here – if there was a sun, it was behind the thick layer of gray that covered the sky and might have been clouds. Kanaya staged elaborate death scenes whenever she was hit in a lethal place, once actually quoting some long, lamenting, Shakespearean-sounding poem word for word. Sollux and Terezi were putting in a valiant effort, but it was difficult to navigate when you were blind and everything was white. Blindness didn't stop them from shouting down any suggestions that they just make snowballs instead of monopolizing the front lines with derision.

Pelting each other with often supernaturally enhanced snowballs could only be entertaining for so long, though. People got bored. The armies drifted apart as the sky darkened and some humans and warmer-blooded trolls decided to call it a day. Callie volunteered to make hot chocolate for anyone who needed it.

Eventually, John and Dave had to order a shivering, soaking wet Karkat with feverishly bright eyes and red-tinged cheeks to come inside before he froze. "It'll still be there tomorrow," John reassured him.

"N-not c-co-cold," Karkat muttered in reply, not looking away from his half-finished snow crab.

"Yes you are," said Dave. "Didn't you and John have this exact conversation this morning? Now come inside and get hot chocolate before we make you."

"Y-you're gonna m-make me? H-how d'y-you plan t'do – what are y-you d-doing."

Dave leaned down and swept Karkat gently off his feet, holding him bridal-style. "Making you come in."

"Strider, what the actual f – oh. You're…this is w-warm."

"Yep."

Karkat stayed uncharacteristically silent while Dave carried him back to the complex. But if John listened hard, and concentrated on not making his feet shuffle in the snow, he could hear a very faint purring sound coming from the troll's chest.


	4. Winter Wonderland

Equius didn't like snow. It was very cold, which was never pleasant, and it was far too fragile for its own good. He watched his boots stomp heavily through the icy crust and sink to the forest floor and sighed. Anything remotely enjoyable that came with snow – such as the tranquil white fields that had unfolded in front of the complex once upon a time before they were disturbed, or the tree branches bowing under the strength of the snow piled high upon them, or the sunlight glinting in fractals off Nepeta's short-lived ice sculpture – none of them could stand more than a touch from him before they were destroyed forever.

So no, Equius did not like snow.

Nepeta, on the other hand, was having the time of her life.

She bounced lightly on top of the snow a few meters ahead of her meowrail, leaving only bare indentations where she stepped. Her senses tingled with excitement and pinpoint awareness of everything happening in this bizarre wonderful world around her. A green bird in flight caught her eye like a splash of blood on the snow. She could hear rodents shuffling delectably in their burrows beneath her. A stray shower of snow tumbled from a tree onto her head, and she batted at it in surprise. The air smelled invigoratingly frigid, and she couldn't feel the end of her nose. Snow was strange, snow was disorienting, and trolls definitely weren't built to interact with it, but it was breathtaking for all that.

Equius was probably wondering why she wasn't talking to him anymore, and a little put out because of it. She'd been really chatty – even for her – until they got deep into the forest, and now she crept silently through the underbrush without so much as a backward glance. Her meowrail was nice to talk to, but she'd done that for a while, and there were too many interesting prey-like animals for her not to give her attention to them for a while.

(In theory, she knew, prey animals weren't the thing she was _supposed _to be giving her attention to. But they were just so…alluring. Alluring was a good word. Hunting was alluring. Finding a 12th Perigee's tree was exciting. Big difference.)

There was that green bird again, flickering in the corner of Nepeta's vision. She frowned, then shifted decisively into a crouch and scuttled under a pine tree. Equius made a disapproving noise behind her, but her senses were locked on that darting puff of feathers.

The puff landed on a tree branch a few feet above her. Nepeta's pupils swelled and she froze, except for her tail, which flicked dangerously side-to-side. Equius sighed. Probably in mourning for the bird's soon-to-be-departed soul, Nepeta thought. It didn't stand a chance under the mighty huntress's gaze.

The bird's head swiveled around innocently, the huntress tracking its every move, biding her time. After a few moments of luring the poor creature into a false sense of security, she surged up in a rush of grace and power, extending her claws and driving them deep through her prey's chest! It was over in an instant. The bird fluttered and died.

Or that was how it was supposed to go. What actually happened was a strong leap upward, followed by ungainly scrambling as the huntress tried to keep her grip on the slippery branches. The bird startled and took off in fear, but Nepeta launched away from the tree and caught it with her paws in midair. One quick bite to the back of the head and it stopped struggling, and she was falling. Oh well. She let herself go limp and waited for Equius to catch her.

He did, and it was kind of rough and jostling, but that was because she hadn't given him much warning and that was okay. She tipped her head back and grinned. "Brought you a purresent."

"I do not _want _the present," Equius blustered, and dropped her in the snow. Despite the cold, a thick sheen of sweat had formed all over his face.

"Oof! Fine!" She stood up and brushed the snow off her coat, slipping the bird into her pocket for later. "Don't take it, then! Meaner."

"I am not a meaner, Nepeta, and I do apologize. But, please – you know how your hunting makes me feel. Refrain from doing something like that in front of me again." Equius had taken off his jacket and was using it as a towel.

Nepeta stuck her tongue out at him, turning away quickly when he looked up. "What do you think of this tree?"

"It's got claw marks all over the trunk," he replied flatly.

"Yeah, but besides that. It's got a lot of branches, and the needles are really green, and that's what Jade told us to look for, right?"

Equius stepped closer. He walked around the tree once, surveying it from all angles, while Nepeta trailed behind and looked for bad spots.

"It is a fine specimen," Equius admitted finally. "Should I pull it out of the ground for us?"

"Nah, Kanaya let me borrow her lipstick. You're carrying it, though!"

"That's fair. I'll stand back over here." Equius shuffled backwards until he was out of range of the falling tree.

Nepeta revved up the chainsaw – she was glad she'd brought earmuffs, because this was _loud – _and made short work of the evergreen. She went back to being chatty on the walk to the complex, because it wasn't like she could hunt with her companion dragging a huge tree behind him in the snow. Also, any prey possessing a healthy set of survival instincts would be long gone after the chainsaw started. She ran a finger over one of the branches and pulled out a few of the needles, bringing them to her nose and inhaling. A tree. How weird. Not all trees were weird, that wasn't what she meant but this _concept_ of a tree. Why would you willingly bring a tree into your house? Wouldn't it lose needles everywhere? Human Perigee's was weird.

But she liked it. She suspected Equius did too. Even if he didn't like snow.

(Although really, how could you not like _snow?)_


	5. This 12th Perigee's

**A/N: Penultimate chapter! If all goes well the final chapter should be up Christmas Eve. Also, due to time constraints, I've crammed RoseMary and Karezi into one chapter, so if you were expecting more with them my apologies.**

* * *

><p>"Terezi, there is no way in hell this is a good idea."<p>

"What's that, Karkat? I don't think I can hear you over the sound of my inner baking genius being unleashed." Terezi thrust a heavy tome, titled _Cooking for All your Christmas Needs, _into Karkat's arms. "Which cabinet is there sugar in? Never mind, I can smell it."

"Since when were you a baking genius?" Karkat shifted the book and flipped through it in search of the Batterwitch logo. They wouldn't have one of those books in the bubble, though. Would they? "You're blind."

"And yet I was able to figure out before you that that book isn't Batterwitch. Elementary, my dear moirail." Terezi grabbed a chunk of pages and flipped them forward. "Look in the index. Is there gingerbread?"

"I was in the index, miss _elementary, _that's where the logo usually goes." Karkat flipped the pages back testily. "Yeah, there's about fifty kinds of gingerspiceloaf or what-the-hell-ever you just said, including…" He did a double take. "A house. Made of gingerbread."

"Let me see that!" Terezi made a grab for the book, but Karkat scrambled backwards and onto a chair and held it above his head. "No! You'll get it all slimy and disgusting!"

"Fine! Find the least bizarre recipe for human gingerbread you can and tell me what it needs."

"Okay. I can do that." Karkat plopped down on the chair and balanced the book on his knees. Papers rustled as Terezi waited impatiently.

"Kay so start with one cup – ew, a whole cup – of molasses…"

She found the molasses, flinching as the sharp smell hit her nose, and measured out a cupful.

The bout of bickering they had started this baking endeavor out with didn't fool Terezi in the slightest. Her moirail was cantankerous for the effect of it, not because he meant what he said. You had to learn to look past the loudness when dealing with Karkat, try not to let his natural irritability get in the way of the underlying message in his actions. And today, that message was that he was willing to spend time with Terezi while everyone else frolicked outside in the snow. Terezi supposed she was touched, somewhere deep down in a part of her she usually ignored, because ordinarily Karkat would be the first one out and not look back.

For some incomprehensible reason. Why anyone would want to spend hours on end surrounded by freezing wet white was beyond Terezi. And she'd tried it, too, which she reminded Karkat of forcefully whenever he tried to convince her outside with him. Three hours, Karkat, three _whole _hours of my life that I'll never get back! Standing knee-deep in white crap I can't move good in! Do you have any idea how hard it is to do anything when everything from you to the horizon looks exactly the same, no, you do not, Karkat _Vantas!_

She usually won. (How much of a win, though. There weren't a lot of things to do in an empty complex besides sitting by yourself and feeling lonely.)

What he was doing was sweet. His own way of showing his moirail that he loved her, and that he could tell she loved him too. She could hear clinks and sense Karkat moving around her, setting out ingredients in a nice neat line on the counter. And if she wasn't mistaken – she ran a hand over the line, just to be sure – he had put them in the order they'd need to be added to the recipe. Forget sweet, this was verging on adorable.

But who said adorable couldn't be boring at the same time? And Terezi was bored. And slightly confused about the whole concept of baking. Which she wouldn't ever admit directly, of course, that was ridiculous. Legislacerators didn't do that sort of thing.

"Who even needs this much molasses? Have you tasted it, Karkat? It tastes like what our lusii used to bring in for 12th Perigee's." She dumped the rest of the molasses back in the bottle, probably missing and dripping all over the counter, and reached for the sugar.

Karkat's hand was there to stop her. "What are you doing?! Whoever wrote that recipe knew their way around an oven well enough to get a book published, and definitely knew more than a girl who's never tried to cook in her life and also can't see because she refuses to take off a blindfold!"

"Yeah, but they didn't have the idea of adding chocolate chips to it, did they? And it's not like chocolate chips can go wrong in anything."

Karkat paused. "You have a point," he conceded, and darted off to the fridge. "I think there's whipped cream, too. That makes everything better no matter the recipe."

"Yep," agreed Terezi, and added double the amount of cinnamon and nutmeg, because it tasted good in pumpkin pie. And ginger, because it was gingerbread after all, and vanilla, because it smelled like everything dreams were made of. While she was at it, why not add almond extract and all the things that smelled good that she was never supposed to use large quantities of?

Her assistant had arrived with an assortment of delicious-smelling things to add. She addressed him without turning around. "I read that eggs are poison, so we can leave those out and not flirt with death more than we have to. You know humans use those like every recipe?"

"What? Really? Wow. I've been thinking they were weenies the whole game. Perspective, I guess."

"Yeah. Hardcore."

The whole bag of chocolate chips went in the mix, as well as the marshmallows and peanut butter. It was getting too chunky to stir properly, but it was nothing a little milk couldn't fix.

"Aw, we're out of flour," said Karkat, disappointed. "I think that's important, like it makes the dough stick together or whatever."

"There's some in the cabinet above me. I can smell it. Probably you can't reach without a stool." Terezi smirked at Karkat's wordless splutters of rage. The cabinet in question was less than a foot above the counter. (He _was _short, though.)

The cupboard hinges squeaked as Karkat stretched to reach the flour on the second shelf. There was some scuffling, and then an expletive followed by a small, hopeless "oops."

"What's oops?" Terezi demanded.

At that point, the sack of flour that Karkat had been trying to scoot to the edge of the shelf so he could reach it finally unbalanced completely and tipped forward out of the cabinet. Terezi couldn't have known to get out of the way before a heavy bag of densely packed, fluffy powder impaled on one of her horns and split.

Terezi sighed internally, mouth screwed shut against the onslaught of flour cascading over her face and hair. And it had been going so _well._

* * *

><p>"Kanaya – " Rose blinked and frowned down at the design her matesprit had handed her. "I really don't see how you expect me to do a double-layer sweater and make both layers visible at the same time."<p>

The troll shrugged despondently. "I know, Rose, I figured it wouldn't be possible. Only, I have really no idea what would suit her body type, and it is very frustrating! She's not like any model I've worked with, she's not a human or a troll, I don't know how to know what would look good on her! I am beginning to clutch at sticks here."

"Grasp at straws. We could always ask Jade what she thinks would be cute, I guess…?"

"She would be more of a hindrance than a help, I'm afraid. Have you _seen _her handmade dresses? The girl has no sense for fashion, and I fear she'll rub it off on Callie if we let her."

Rose hummed noncommittally. "Well, maybe we can work on something else for a while and come back to this. We decided on making Aradia and Feferi sweater dresses, right?"

Kanaya nodded, reaching for one of the papers scattered at random around Rose's room and picking it up. It was a sketch of a troll body with curling horns and the label "Aradia" in red at the top. She scooted closer to Rose on the bed where they both sat, surrounded in a nest of drawings and fabric and yarn, and retrieved a pencil from behind her ear. Rose leaned over her shoulder, nodding as she gestured at the sketch with one hand. "Now, Aradia's body type is pear while Feferi's is closer to hourglass, so we'll have to make it longer than a typical sweater dress to accommodate for both of their hip widths. However, with Aradia, you won't have to worry about adding as much room around the top – what if we put some sort of design in the center? Something to symbolize the rugged outdoors she so loves to explore, perhaps?"

"And what about lining the helm with a plant motif?" added Rose. "Callie will probably let us use her plant scrapbook for reference and not ask too many questions – should I go get it?"

"Oh yes _please!" _Kanaya grinned. Rose grinned back at her and hopped off the bed. She closed the door of the bedroom door behind her – the Sweater Project was Top Secret Information, and they couldn't have anyone finding out about it before Christmas Day. With Kanaya's fashion expertise and her knitting skills, they would make sure that everyone was both warm and stylish for however long they stayed here. (And it meant avoiding the line of everyone else trying to sneakily alchemize their gifts without anyone seeing.)

Rose got halfway to Jade and Calliope's room before realizing how unusually empty it was. She felt a small, annoyed sinking in the pit of her stomach. Had everyone gone outside? _Again?_

A glance out a nearby window confirmed it. Evidently she and Kanaya had been too caught up in their holiday knitting to hear everyone leaving. She'd have to wait until Callie came back in to borrow the scrapbook. Of course there was nothing stopping her from taking it out of the girls' room right now, but Callie really dislike other people touching her things. Especially books, after she had lost a whole tome of slaved-over art and writing to her destructive brother.

So Rose would wait. That was okay. She turned around to report back to Kanaya with the news when she heard a noise coming from – yes, that was the kitchen, and yes, that was Karkat. It sounded like he was arguing with someone less loud than him. Something about flour and idiots and gingerbread.

To her horror, Rose felt a growing sense of…responsibility. To help take care of whatever situation had made Karkat shouty this time. Ugh. Kan was really rubbing off on her.

Rose sighed and trotted back the way she had come.

The polite "Please Knock First" note in Kanaya's neat handwriting went unheeded and Rose poked her head inside without fanfare. The only reason the note was there was for the Sweater Project, so it really didn't matter. Other players, being teenagers, would think "shenanigans" and avoid the room. That worked out well for the continued secrecy of the project.

"Karkat's shouting about something in the kitchen, and everyone else is outside. Shall we go see what the fuss is about?"

Kanaya glanced up from her sketchpad, looking resigned. "Is he? We had better."

"I had very definite plans for making some kind of Christmas confection," she admitted forlornly as they walked in step toward the source of the yelling. "I do hope he hasn't messed that up in any way."

The yelling faded away gradually, and was replaced with a very faint, sibilant hiss. "But would you have found time for it, with all of the…project?" asked Rose.

"You…have a point." Kanaya smiled shyly. "I do have a tendency to put more things on my plate than I can handle."

The hissing had grown more distinct and now resembled a low _shoooooooooshhhhhhh. _Good. Rose was relieved, if still a little nervous, as they neared the kitchen. At least Karkat wouldn't be on full shout mode anymore.

Yes, that was definite shooshing Rose could hear from the other side of the door, and now she could also make out a rasping undercurrent of grumbles along with it. Terezi was surprisingly good at this.

Kanaya took a deep breath and swung open the door.

After a solid minute of silent staring at Terezi, whose arms were linked protectively around a freshly papped Karkat, at the sheer _mess – _how on earth did you even _get _batter up there, and why was there a whole bag's worth of flour on the floor and in Terezi's hair – and at Kanaya, both trying very hard not to grin, Rose broke the silence. "And I thought it was bad when my mother tried to cook."

From where his head was tucked into the crook of Terezi's neck, Karkat unleashed a string of swearwords. Terezi ran a hand through his hair and murmured shooshes in his ear.

"Well, don't blame me that they made the recipe boring," she said. It took Rose a while to figure out that she was talking to them.

Rose skirted the various baking ingredients scattered all over the floor and picked up the cookbook. It had either fallen or been dropped off the table and landed spine-up in a way that made her internally cringe. That wasn't how you treated books, under any circumstances. She held it gingerly and flipped to the page it had fallen open on, now marked with a page-long crease. "Gingerbread?"

"Thought it would be traditional," Terezi shrugged. "It's a traditional human Christmas…whatever it is, right?"

"Yeah, but it's rather gross, if you ask me. Too much molasses. Let's start with something simpler." With the wording of that last sentence, Rose realized that she wouldn't be going back to working on sweaters anytime soon. Oh well. Kan had _really _rubbed off on her.

"Sugar cookies!" Kanaya exclaimed happily. "Oh – er – " She blushed and cleared her throat, embarrassed at her outburst. "I mean – sugar cookies. I've always wanted to try them."

_It's gonna be a long day, _Rose thought. A long day spent mostly in this kitchen. Surrounded by her friends, and matesprit, and baking smells, and sweet things, and arguments. And of course all of that would just be compounded when everyone else came in from the snow and instinctively sought warmth and food.

"Rose –" called Kanaya, from the table where she was hunched over the recipe book with Terezi and Karkat. "Rose, have you made these before? It says to separate the eggs. I was not aware that eggs could undergo mitosis."

Vague memories of googling "how to separate an egg" at age eight for her mother's surprise birthday cake floated into Rose's mind. She smiled. "Coming!"


	6. Silent Night

**A/N: I'm sorry if this chapter sucks, I feel like it does and I apologize. (Also the last third or so is toothrottingly sappy Karkat-centric fluff so if that doesn't appeal to you probably skip that part.) but hEY MERRY CHRISTMAS OR WHATEVER THE HECK YOU CELEBRATE :DDD**

* * *

><p>The lights were off in the library. All the chairs within reasonable carrying distance were clustered around the fireplace. The logs crackled and sparked hypnotically, and Jade could feel her eyelids getting heavy.<p>

It was Christmas Eve, and everything was quiet.

Would they make it to their beds? Would they all fall asleep in front of the fire? Jade didn't know, and really didn't care. It was _Christmas Eve, _and nothing mattered but the fact that they were together. For the moment.

Jade closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. Her hold on the spacebubble was failing, and she doubted it would last until the new year. And she was scared. Callie and Kanaya knew, they could feel it slowly beginning to fall apart at the seams as well as she. They'd told no one else, though. It would last through Christmas, and they could figure something else out after that.

This little gathering in front of the fire was her silent farewell gesture. She had no idea what would happen when the bubble dissipated, no idea if they'd ever see each other again, and she was _scared. _She tried to push it down, though, and just enjoy the moment.

* * *

><p>Callie stared into the flames meditatively, eyes glazed but not sleepy. She didn't fall asleep in front of people very easily – not when for so long she had associated sleep with unleashing destruction and revulsion. She and Jade were stuffed not uncomfortably into a soft leatherlike armchair, with Jade's knees pulled up and partially resting on her lap. Callie hoped she and Jade would be able to stay together after the bubble was gone, but if they lost each other on accident, they could find their ways back. Or so she told herself.<p>

It was pointless to worry, really, but she knew Jade was more afraid for it than she let on. She always let herself take on too much responsibility. Callie rubbed her shoulder reassuringly. They could get through it, whatever happened. That was what she hoped, and that was what she would keep telling anyone who listened.

In the meantime, it was Christmas. Or 12th Perigee's. They seemed similar, and she got them mixed up easily, even though Jade and Kanaya had explained the concepts to her on many occasions. It didn't bother her, though. Any holiday that meant winter and food and gifts and fun was exciting in her book, no matter what species celebrated it.

* * *

><p>Nepeta was curled tightly in a ball on Equius's lap, purring like a kitten as he stroked her hair. Their shared couch wasn't too close to the fire; Equius got warm quickly and didn't want to get sweat all over her.<p>

She didn't have any idea how she was going to get to sleep tonight – the thought of tearing into those beautifully wrapped presents and finally being able to play with the shiny ribbons and bows to her heart's content filled her with as much excitement as a full can of energy drink. At least she could finally sit still, which had been hard to do all day. Tonight was going to be long and hard without any desire to sleep.

* * *

><p>For the first time he could remember in…a very long time, Equius was okay. He might even say…calm. Yes. He was calm, he noted with placid surprise. His mind, for once, wasn't feeling the need to run tension and energy through his body. His moirail was curled on his lap, just where she was meant to be, and he let his fingers comb through her tangled hair. The fire's constant hiss and occasional pops gave him something non-stressful to focus on, and he could feel the vibrations of Nepeta's purr under his hand. Was this what being "relaxed" was like? He felt like he could happily melt straight into this chair.<p>

* * *

><p>Rose and Kanaya had waged a custody battle for the biggest couch with Aradia, Feferi and Sollux and lost. This left them squished together on one end of said couch while the other three took up much more space than was needed on the other side. The dancing flames in the fireplace brought back memories Rose didn't want to think about, memories that were painfully dark and frighteningly grim, so she allowed her eyes to drift closed rested her head against Kanaya's shoulder.<p>

She was still in awe of how the Sweater Project had turned out – 12 sweaters wrapped and ready for delivery tomorrow, despite the day before yesterday's baking-induced delay. Equally shocking was the fact that she had convinced Kanaya into a fuzzy Christmas sweater some hours ago, and was currently snuggled up tightly against its warmth.

* * *

><p>Kanaya, perhaps, held Rose a little tighter than was necessary tonight. Jade had warned her and Callie not to tell anyone about the state of the bubble until after the Christmas euphoria faded, and Kanaya wouldn't. It would be cruel, right now.<p>

But…she didn't want to go back to the place she had gone when she died. She knew Rose was dead (neither of them were breathing right now, she could feel the absence like a hole in her chest), but she hadn't seen her in wherever she had been. There was so much they didn't _know, _and couldn't find out until the bubble was gone. So no one could blame her for snuggling her matesprit a little more before they were likely separated again.

* * *

><p>Feferi's thoughts drifted in and out of sleepy focus like the horrorterrors drifted in and out of her dreams. She was almost uncomfortably warm, despite having claimed the corner of the couch angled furthest away from the fire. Most of the heat was coming from Aradia, who she was leaning up against with almost her entire left side, but did that mean she would stop cuddling her occasionally-flushed-sometimes-pale-who-really-knows girlfriend? Of course not. Getting too toasty sometimes was the price one paid for dating two lowbloods, and it was beyond worth it.<p>

* * *

><p>Sollux, gangly legs curled under him and face half-smushed into Aradia's shoulder, was asleep. He hadn't lasted 10 minutes. Someone – probably Aradia – had had the foresight to take off his glasses and put them on the end table before he crushed them. He didn't snore, to the relief of everyone present, but a thin strand of drool dripped from his open mouth onto Aradia's sleeve.<p>

As his matesprits had found out early into their relationship, Sollux tended to spread out in his sleep. Often they'd wake up in the middle of the night trapped on opposite sides of the bed, with a six-foot-long starfish of a troll splayed in the very center. Now Starfish Captor was unconsciously attempting to do the same on this couch. Kanaya had been sending glares Aradia's way as Sollux's legs edged into her and Rose's space, until Aradia finally caught on and pulled him up closer so his head could rest by hers. Sollux snuffled and moved his legs off the couch before closing half-dead eyes and going back to sleep.

* * *

><p>Aradia knew Sollux was drooling on her again. She didn't really care. It was pretty much the only thing she didn't care about right now – and that felt so <em>good! <em>She could _care _again! Christmas was tomorrow, lots of her friends were here, she had a matesprit nestled on either side, and she _cared! _Like she hadn't been able to _care _for the sweeps she'd been dead. Living was wonderful. And living with friends was even better. Aradia leaned her head on Feferi, pulled Sollux closer in to her body, and smiled.

* * *

><p>Terezi wasn't at all sure how Dave had convinced her into sitting on the floor instead of fighting for a couch, but it had been a good idea. Actually, scratch that. (Scratch. Hehe.) She knew <em>exactly <em>how Dave had gotten her to come "sit" with him, John and Karkat – with the implication that it would turn into one giant cuddle pile.

They'd started out upright, yes. But how they'd gotten into this position on the floor in front of the biggest couch was a mystery never to be solved. Karkat was in the center of the pile, which he'd been unexpectedly unquarrelsome about. John and Terezi sat on either side of him; half leaning against the couch and half snuggled into his warmth. Dave was splayed out across all their legs. His head rested in John's lap and his cold toes were crammed under Terezi's thigh. She was pretty sure Karkat was asleep, and if he wasn't he was very good at faking.

Terezi nestled her nose comfortably in the crook of Karkat's neck, resisting the urge to lick him and shatter the peace with his yelp. Funny as that would be.

* * *

><p>You wouldn't think this position was comfortable in any way, but Dave was pretty content where he was. Sleeping in weird places was some sort of innate ability of his. Even after breaking up with her and getting with her moirail, he and Terezi were close enough for her to let him warm up his toes under her leg, and John's lap was a really nice and squishy pillow. Not to mention the way John's fingers were drifting almost absently through his hair…if he was a troll there was no doubt he'd be purring.<p>

His shades were dangerously close to slipping off his face, but let them. Wasn't like he was opening his eyes any time soon. This was probably his first "real" Christmas in, what – he racked his memories…never. Him and Bro hadn't celebrated, not even ironically, and for the last few Christmases he'd been otherwise occupied. Wow. That was sad.

* * *

><p>Christmas was the best day of the year, and no one could convince John otherwise. He and Dad always put up an unreasonable amount of lights and decorations and stayed up too late watching bad holiday movies. When he was younger he would always drift off in the middle and have to be carried up to bed. Not to mention the Christmas cookies! Baking them was an all-day event, and the school's holiday bake sale always got at least half its stock from the Egbert house.<p>

Or…John swallowed against the sudden sickish feeling in his gut. They used to. The cookies Karkat, Terezi, Rose and Kanaya had made were disappearing fast, but he'd only managed to sample one before the memories became too much to handle.

That was…that was in the past, though, and John pushed it out of his mind. His fingers combed slowly through Dave's soft, fine hair. Dave sighed almost inaudibly and leaned into John's hand, his shades finally losing their grip on the bridge of his nose and sliding down over his face. Gently, so as not to disturb him, John slid the glasses off Dave's head and put them in his front hoodie pocket.

He wondered how many people around him were asleep right now. Dave was, Karkat was, and it was impossible to tell what was under Terezi's blindfold. He couldn't see anyone else from his position. What time was it? Dave could tell him. John guessed he didn't care enough to wake him up. He'd be fine with falling asleep right here in front of the fire. He leaned back on Karkat's shoulder and closed his eyes.

* * *

><p><em>Karkat Vantas, there's literally no reason for you to have so many emotions right now. So stop having them. It's stupid. Don't cry. You idiot. You're crying. Why are you crying. Stop crying. Stop it now shut up.<em>

Karkat sniffed.

No one took notice. Thank gog.

As if he didn't have enough to worry about right now, like the bubble bursting, and dying again, and getting separated from his romfriends, his brain had chosen _now of all times _to make him get emotional. He wasn't a stranger to emotions. Of course not. When you were a connoisseur of romance novels you had to be in tune with every feeling. He just wasn't used to having them in _front _of people.

Karkat struggled to keep his breathing in the normal range. It was just…this was too good to be true. This was turning into a – dare he say it – a _happy 12__th__ Perigee's_. Lots of his friends were here, and Jade had assured him that everyone that wasn't was reasonably okay as well. He didn't even know if he was happy or sad or angry or guilty, but whatever it was, it was confusing and he didn't like it.

It was selfish thinking, he knew, but he didn't…he didn't _deserve _this. Everything since the game started had been his fault, either because of him directly or as a result of his failed leadership. It just…didn't seem fair. Here he was, with his ridiculously violent personality and more violence than anyone, even a troll, should go through on his record. Surrounded by _peace_. And quiet. And _okayness. _And people who liked him, some who even liked him, despite what he had – what he –

To his mortification, Karkat couldn't suppress a sob. It was quiet, no tears, his face quickly reverting back to its forcefully relaxed expression. _Maybe nobody noticed, please let no one have noticed – _

Dave bolted upright, butt sliding off Karkat's right leg. Karkat glimpsed only a flash of concerned red eyes before the shades came out of his jacket pocket and he felt a comforting hand on his left shoulder. _Terezi. _Oh no.

A surge of emotion contorted his face into a painful grimace, and his hands came up to smash against it and hide. He sobbed again. It sounded broken and pathetic. Red dripped through the gaps in his fingers and a shudder racked his body.

"Sorry," he choked out, hating the way it hung shamefully in the air.

By this point everyone had blinked sleepily to attention, and he could feel their eyes on him. It was like a nightmare. Also he was full-out crying now – no more strangled sobs, no way to try and conceal it. He was crying, and now he'd started he doubted he'd be able to stop any time soon.

"Hey. Karkat," came a soft whisper from across the room. Nepeta. "It's okay."

"Yeah, dude. We won't judge," Sollux mumbled.

Terezi papped him. Once. Feather-light, like she was afraid he would fall apart. And jegus, Karkat _whimpered._

That was when John seemed to snap out of his daze and leaned over to hug him. Karkat froze. Spontaneous, uninvited hugs were John's specialty and cure-all, and they got really annoying really fas –

Okay, at this point putting up a façade was helping literally no one. He hugged back. He hugged back _harder._

His moirail wrapped her arms around his chest from behind, forming some sort of inane human-troll sandwich. Dave eased Karkat's head up from John's shoulder to wipe the cherry-red tearstains from his cheeks. "I know," he murmured. "I know, Karkat. It's gonna be okay."

"It's _not, _though," Karkat protested, too exhausted to be embarrassed about how his voice cracked. "You're crazy if you think we're all gonna get out of this game alive. Together."

"Probably," said Terezi, whispering her agreement into the back of his neck. "But hey, we're together now. Right now it's okay. That's all we can ask for; we can do nothing about the game here. So relax. Stop trying, fearless leader. Shooooshhhh."

"Tomorrow's Christmas!" said John, who was probably face to face with Terezi from this angle but didn't seem to care. "Or…12th Perigee's, or whatever your weird troll equivalent is. It'll look better then. Trust me. Things look better in the morning."

Karkat's emotions still threatened to take over if he let down his guard any lower than they had already fallen, but at least the tears seemed to have stopped coming. He sighed tiredly into John's shoulder. So much of this odyssey he'd been tired. Tired of being tired of being tired. He just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep for several hundred sweeps. Preferably in a solitary and nonlethal place. He was more than tired; he was _done _with the universe and with Sgrub.

Then John started to sing. It caught Karkat off guard, because he had _never _heard John do that before and it was startling, but he recognized the tune quickly. It was an Earth Christmas carol, one he secretly loved despite having no idea what the lyrics were supposed to mean.

"Silent night…Holy night…"

John's voice was low and quiet, and gave occasionally on the high notes. Karkat made a small noise of pleasure. Was John…was he singing him to sleep?

Dave, not knowing the words but remembering the tune, began to hum. His relatively steady baritone filled the air around John's tentative tenor while Terezi papped gently up and down his back. This was…this was good. He was okay. Still tired, but…okay.

Karkat rested his face in John's warm chest, drifting in the sensation, of sleepy, placid okayness. It was getting harder to focus, and he was beginning to wonder if he should take a break from focusing at all…John was good at this lullaby stuff. If that was what it was. Whatever he was doing with his voice, it was certainly having the same effect as one. He snuffled into John's warmth, and his matesprit smiled as he sang the last line.

"Sleep in heavenly peace…sleep in heavenly peace."


End file.
